WE ARE THE WORLD (CUP)

Life as a football fanatic.

Bennett, the cofounder and face of the popular Men in Blazers suite of podcasts, books, and other media, takes a charmingly subjective look at the World Cup, which kicks off again this year in North America. Mostly, he keeps it light, with self-effacing humor and one-liners about players’ “dodgy haircuts” and “ill-advised neck tattoos.” But there’s earnestness too, with the event’s quadrennial schedule serving as “the spine to my life.” His early World Cup memories braid hard-won insights with angry outbursts. Rooting for first-round losers Scotland in 1978 because his native England didn’t qualify, he gets an important lesson in “shattered hope.” An England loss in ’86 compels the frustrated teenager to boot a ball through a window. Bennett’s chapters on ensuing World Cups cover his “love of all things American”—he became a citizen in 2018—and his adopted country’s evolving relationship with the sport. Watching a 1990 game on TV in Boston, he’s stunned when commercials air not just at halftime but during the action. In Washington, he’s playing soccer when he meets his future wife. A jocular broadcaster and likable talk-show guest, Bennett himself has helped grow the game. His rich behind-the-scenes portrait of Men in Blazers details the mechanics of building “a niche community”—young-adult author John Green offered him key advice on this front. Bennett’s set pieces aren’t all winners. When he can’t remember specifics, he resorts to lazy stereotypes about different nation’s fan bases. But he’s often very funny, memorably describing a ponytailed player as “Alexander Hamilton if he were a stripper.” The jokes are accompanied by smart analysis of the tension between fandom and soccer corruption. This book has much to offer die-hards and bandwagon-jumpers alike.

A well-known broadcaster’s affable memoir focuses on global soccer’s biggest tournament.